Cover Story

Its rich history, diversified portfolio and commitment to providing best-in-class service to its customers are among the reasons that Grey Eagle Distributors is Beverage Industry’s 2017 Wholesaler of the Year.

Features

As millennials age and iGeneration consumers gain buying power, their consumption habits of coffee beverages are growing and changing. In conjunction with health-and-wellness trends and functional benefits, coffee has become a go-to category for these consumers who look for premium, specialty and value-added products.

With consumers desiring more premium options, White Plains, N.Y.-based HEINEKEN USA took its expertise as a global brewer of major brands, including Heineken and Dos Equis, to embark on a journey to give consumers the premium beer tastes from the diverse sources that they desire.

Although the eCommerce effect has presented a new dynamic for the retail market, the convenience store (c-store) channel has shown itself to be resilient. However, experts note that the channel still is navigating other consumer packaged goods (CPG) trends in order to meet the needs of today’s consumer.

Although many consumers might be looking to live healthier lifestyles, they’re still looking for products that satisfy their sweet tooth. Looking for the best of both worlds, consumers are demanding great-tasting sweetened products that do not contain sugar.

Departments

As many working within this industry know, these taxes extend to nearly all beverage categories (minus 100 percent juice, milk, milk alternatives, infant formula, medical-use beverages, therapeutic meal replacements, or syrup and powder mixes). Many retailers and consumers are noting the confusing nature of these taxes.

Delicato Family Vineyards, Manteca, Calif., announced the completion of the installation of a solar electric energy system at its flagship winery in Napa Valley. The 347.93 kW PV system includes more than 1,000 panels that were installed on building roofs at Black Stallion Estate Winery by Sunworks.

Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits, Miami and Dallas, has become the preferred on-trade sales partner for the Coravin Wine System, a technology that enables users to pour a glass of wine without pulling the cork.

There’s an old adage that talks about the need to never stop learning. In the wine and spirits industries, the adage holds true. On-premise, wine and food pairings continue to be a topic of conversation for many, myself included.

Beverage brands are becoming more adapt to digial marketing. For example, 19 Crimes released an augmented reality app allowing consumers to learn about the characters on the wine's packaging. Additionally, Barbadillo announced that its consumers can interact with its packaging through near-field communication enabled neck collars.

Children’s toys like Connectagons bill themselves as offering limitless opportunities for constructing various objects. Although labeling equipment cannot be adapted as easily as these skill-building toys, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are developing systems that are more modular to support the evolving beverage market.

There are many aspects of a beverage package that can be crucial when the consumer is making their final purchase decision. As beverage-makers look to differentiate their products via packaging design, many have begun to choose new primary packaging formats or are changing the shape of their primary package to provide shelf appeal.

The 2017 installment of Pack Expo Las Vegas and Healthcare Packaging Expo, which is taking place Sept. 25-27 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, is positioned to surpass its 2015 numbers, according to PMMI, the producer of Pack Expo.

As more consumers take a back-to-nature approach to their health and nutrition, recognizable, plant-based botanical ingredients like green tea, guarana, turmeric, acai, vanilla and ginger are adding functionality, healthy hydration, natural caffeine and clean-label appeal to a variety of beverages.

Beverage Industry conducted its fifth annual fleet survey earlier this year to get the latest data on the size and makeup of current delivery fleets, as well as operational concerns and strategies. As with years past, the survey offers the publication an opportunity to see which operations are having the greatest impact on beverage fleets.

Forklifts have long been a staple in beverage warehouses. Yet, demand for new, sustainable technologies, like electric lift trucks, as well as the incorporation of the right combination of slotting and storage strategies to increase capacity and picking efficiency are driving the market.

Suppliers are expanding their portfolios and helping beverage-makers in their packaging and distribution operations by maintaining quality control and increasing uptime. At drinktec, Gerhard Schubert GmbH and KHS showcased the benefits of the Innopack-TLM block packaging system which can pack beverage crates, baskets, clusters and other cardboard packaging. Sacmi debuted a cross-process quadblock platform that combines stretch-blow molding with labeling and filling all in one machine. Other companies are releasing devices to test the purity of water, inspect aluminum cans and increase production on the beverage production line.

Consumer products historically have required some type of date/time identification for a number of reasons including production dates, production schedules, inventory controls, distribution planning and regulatory compliance.

Cafeteria administrators at the University of Montana removed the nutritional food labels from the school’s main dining hall because, according to officials, they were causing too much congestion in the serving lines. In other words, the students were taking too much time reading the labels.
The fact that reading food labels was causing congestion tells us that consumers do indeed take the time to read nutrition labels, which is important for the food and beverage industries.

Finding new ways to reach consumers in a crowded marketplace and digital world can be difficult. While sifting through my emails and news, I’m always intrigued by brands that are finding unique ways to utilize the digital world to connect and excite their consumers.

King takes great pride in Side Project’s bold label and package design. He recognizes the importance of design in the overall experience for the drinker. “We know it’s what’s inside the bottle that counts,” King says. “But we also appreciate how a bottle is presented. Its label and packaging keep the customer remembering what they tasted.”

In the beverage market, as well as other consumable industries, the influence of clean label continues to expand its reach. In fact, in its Top Ten Trends list for 2017, the Netherlands-based Innova Market Insights highlighted how clean label has been a running theme for the market research firm dating back to 2008.

The technical age in which we now live has offered consumers access to an endless supply of information at their fingertips. Many utilize this easy-to-access information to educate themselves on the products they are consuming. GMOs are among the product attributes that consumers are considering as they’ve gained greater understanding of what they are eating and drinking. With this, many are turning to the Bellingham, Wash.-based Non-GMO Project and its orange butterfly logo to help guide their choices.

Events

Tetra Pak’s expertise is rooted in deep experience with our own factories as well as our work on a diverse range of global projects. In this webinar, we’ll share strategies tailored for the food and beverage industry, including how to improve business performance by understanding losses, implementing sustainable improvements and achieving a higher, more flexible and predictable production.